Sunday, August 23, 2009

I Lied. My Dad Would Be So Proud!

So there is a verdularia (vegetable store) in my neighborhood that I like to get my produce from because its better than what is in the grocery stores. At verdularias here employees help you choose your produce and weigh it for you and everything. When I went for the first time a couple of weeks ago, a young man helped me get my things and he was very considerate about my limited speaking capabilities. Since then we´ve been on an "hola" basis whenever I pass the shop (we say hello as I pass). The other day however, he was outside so I stopped to chat with him. He asked me what my name was and I had to spell it out for him (people down here have a hard time pronouncing my name), so he took out his phone to write it out (I could see where this was going...), and then asked if I had a cell phone here so he could text me. I told him that I didn´t (which was a lie), and then he told me in heavily accented English "You are beautiful" and then proceeded to ask if I had a "novio" (boyfriend), to which I answered yes (also a lie). Then we kind of joked about it and he said I was breaking his heart. Better sooner than later, no? Daddy would be proud.

This last week I was introduced to two guys at the Institute because they speak English - turns out one is Canadian and the other is an MK (missionary kid). I happen to live between the two of them and the Canadian (Geordan) runs a youth program at an English-speaking church and teaches once a week at the Institute. The other (Stephen) is 21 and just got back to Argentina from taking classes at a university in Philidelphia (about the same time I did). Stephen is going to start working with Geordan as a leader for the youth program so they invited me to the group event this last Friday - a kind of progressive dinner kind of thing where all of us moved from house to house for each course of the meal. Almost all of the youth attend an International high school and almost all of them were American. I had gotten used to hearing English with the British accent because of the many British-Argentines in my area, but it was so strange to be in a room full of people speaking "American". This last Friday was the first time I´ve used the word "dude" here - it was so weird to say it! I met several Americans on Friday and most of them invited me to this event or that, which is great, but I don´t want to surround myself with English too much because I came to Argentina for the "Immersion Experience". I´ll have to limit my time with them, no matter how much I like spending time with them.

Random connection - Geordan´s sons play roller-hockey for the community team (I used to play when I was a kid), and he just put up a rock-climbing wall in his backyard (I just started getting into rock-climbing before I left for Argentina).

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are going to have to start beating the boys off with a stick! ... just remember that you have to come home and bring one with you, you can't stay there with them. lol. JUST KIDDING! Stop rolling your eyes! I love you April, and I miss you tons!

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  2. Haha - I promised Jim I would come home for 6 months before marrying anyone! lol

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